May 21 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s
administration will make public a secret legal memo it has used
to justify drone strikes against U.S. citizens overseas who are
suspected terrorists, an administration official said.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed not to appeal
a court ruling that required disclosure of the memo, said the
official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Redactions will be
made before the release, which will take time, the official
said.

Administration disclosure of its decision to release the
memo was made a day before a vote scheduled today in the U.S.
Senate on advancing the nomination of its author to become a
federal judge. Former Justice Department official David Barron
was nominated by Obama for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in Boston.

Lawmakers led by Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky
have been demanding the release of the legal advice written by
Barron justifying the use of lethal force against U.S. citizens
during counterterrorism operations.

The controversy arose with the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki,
a U.S. citizen, by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011. The U.S.
said al-Awlaki was a key leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula. Al-Awlaki’s teenage son was killed in a separate
drone strike, in which he wasn’t a target, two weeks after his
father died.

In an opinion article published yesterday in the Boston
Herald, Paul wrote that he didn’t argue with the notion that al-Awlaki deserved to die.

Deciding Punishment

“I don’t necessarily disagree with his punishment,” Paul
wrote. “I disagree with how the punishment was decided.
American citizens not on a battlefield must be convicted before
they are sentenced to death.”

Paul said he would oppose Barron’s nomination because of
his memos justifying such strikes.

The American Civil Liberties Union, while not taking a
position on Barron, urged all senators to read Barron’s policy
paper before voting.

“The release of this memo will allow the public to better
understand the scope of the authority that the government is
claiming,” said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer, who
argued the lawsuit seeking release of the targeted killings
papers before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. “We will
continue to argue in court for the public release of the other
targeted killing memos and related documents.”

“In order to make a fair assessment about the drone
program, the American people need to know who is being killed in
our name,” Daphne Eviatar of advocacy group Human Rights First
said in a statement.

Holder accepted the recommendation of U.S. Solicitor
General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. not to appeal the case, said the
administration official, who wasn’t authorized to make a
statement.